New York Nook, cozy space produces excellent food

This post is long overdue. Our apologies to our readers and the restaurant.

Following a wonderful day of sightseeing and spending some time in central park, TasteBudA and I set out to find a unique location for a Saturday night dinner in Manhattan. We purposely went into the trip planning on just “winging it” when it came to food. So not having done much research for dinner options, we aimed for a dinner time after the shows would have started, in hopes to avoid the rush. Thanks to a little help from my Urbanspoon app on my Andoid phone, we were ecstatic to have found a BYOB restaurant, Nook, just west of our hotel in Hell’s Kitchen. Although, I didn’t picture Manhattan to have many (or any) BYOB locations, I figured it was worth a shot to check.

The name Nook explains the size of this restaurant. It is a restaurant nestled in between some other businesses. I’d estimate, the dining room couldn’t have been more than 15 feet wide and maybe 30 feet deep with table tops for about 24 diners. Fortunately it was a nice night outside, and there was a bench to wait for our table to open up. And although we waited probably 20 minutes to be seated, it was well worth the wait. The food was prepared wonderfully and the owner/waiter/manager/host seemed to have everything completely under control and the restaurant ran without a hitch.

Spicy citrus-marinated shrimp

Selecting our entrees was quite difficult as everything looked so good coming out of the kitchen – and yes, while sitting there, we saw almost every entree offered come out of the kitchen. To start we had the Mushroom Cigars, pan-seared portabella mushrooms mixed with sage and goat cheese, wrapped in filo dough and lightly drizzled with white truffle oil. It is the only thing not pictured below due to an unflattering picture of TasteBudB holding one. They were like nothing I’d ever tasted and probably the only kind of cigar I’d even venture to pose with.

Stuffed pork with chive mashed potatoes and salad greens.

For our entrees, we decided on a spicy, citrus-marinated shrimp for TasteBudB (pictured above) and the stuffed pork with chive mashed potatoes and salad greens. We found them both to be filling to our stomachs, tasteful in our mouths and even visually pleasing to the eye. I guess overall, that would mean well satisfied.

As you might expect, dining in such close quarters allows you to get to know the folks dining near you, especially for outgoing individuals like ourselves. So, even though we had no room for dessert, after some brief after dinner conversation with the table next to us, we asked if we could get a shot of their dessert, which they happily obliged. Alas, we ate it soley with our eyes.

Nook is a wonderful gem to find on the streets of New York. I think you would be hard-pressed to find somewhere as quaint, delicious, and affordable (under $75 including the pre-purchased bottle of wine).

A picture perfect dessert from the nearby table.

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While "TasteBud B" doesn't feel very photogenic, he certainly gets out and about to snap pictures of his food. He's passionate about sharing Pittsburgh events, food talk topics, restaurant recommendations and travel destination finds. (@PghTasteBudB On Twitter)